Dawson vs New Salem

A side-by-side comparison of Dawson and New Salem: population, income, housing, and more.

Dawson and New Salem are places in Pennsylvania. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

New Salem has the higher population (390 vs 387 in Dawson). New Salem has the higher median household income ($100,688 vs $53,594 in Dawson). New Salem has the higher median home value ($142,200 vs $89,100 in Dawson).

Population, income & housing

	Dawson	New Salem
Population	387	390
Median age	40.8 yrs	44.7 yrs
Median household income	$53,594	$100,688
Median home value	$89,100	$142,200
Median gross rent	$910	—
Housing units	176	159
Homeownership rate	73.3%	100.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher	8.2%	9.5%
Unemployment rate	8.8%	11.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Dawson	New Salem
Population	448 → 387 (-13.6%)	624 → 390 (-37.5%)
Median household income	$46,250 → $53,594 (+15.9%)	$68,295 → $100,688 (+47.4%)
Median home value	$65,400 → $89,100 (+36.2%)	$88,800 → $142,200 (+60.1%)
Median gross rent	$782 → $910 (+16.4%)	—

Dawson

Population

448387

Median household income

$46,250$53,594

Median home value

$65,400$89,100

Median gross rent

$782$910

New Salem

Population

624390

Median household income

$68,295$100,688

Median home value

$88,800$142,200

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Dawson	New Salem
Under 5	7.5%	0.0%
5 to 17	17.8%	13.8%
18 to 24	5.4%	10.8%
25 to 34	6.2%	13.3%
35 to 44	17.3%	13.6%
45 to 54	15.2%	16.2%
55 to 64	15.0%	10.8%
65 to 74	8.8%	14.9%
75 and over	6.7%	6.7%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Dawson	New Salem
White (non-Hispanic)	98.4%	85.4%
Black or African American	0.0%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.3%	0.0%
Asian	0.0%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	1.3%	5.4%
Hispanic or Latino	0.0%	9.2%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Dawson	New Salem
No high school diploma	13.1%	4.1%
High school graduate	56.3%	59.5%
Some college or associate's	22.4%	26.9%
Bachelor's degree	7.8%	6.8%
Graduate or professional degree	0.4%	2.7%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Dawson	New Salem
Drove alone	74.0%	94.4%
Carpooled	5.2%	5.6%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	11.7%	0.0%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	9.1%	0.0%
Other means	0.0%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Dawson	New Salem
1-unit, detached	94.9%	100.0%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	4.0%	0.0%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	0.0%
20 or more units	0.0%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	1.1%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Dawson	New Salem
Poverty rate	25.3%	0.0%
Average household size	2.40	2.45
Mean commute (minutes)	24	40
Median year structure built	1938	1948